THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: Campaign Journal; For New Ideas, It's a Week That Isn't

By JOHN TIERNEY,

Published: March 13, 1992

CHICAGO, March 12—
As sanctimonious as ever, the Democratic Presidential candidates are all on television here, attacking traditional politicians and promising radical reforms. But viewers may be wondering what exactly makes these enlightened rebels so different.

Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas, who likes to calls himself an "agent of change" against the "brain-dead politics" of the past, arrived here to pose for the cameras and effusively praise Chicago's Mayor, Richard M. Daley, the heir and namesake of America's most famous machine politician. Meanwhile, Mr. Clinton's television advertising is lambasting one of his opponents in next Tuesday's primaries in Illinois and Michigan, former Senator Paul E. Tsongas of Massachusetts, for daring to even mention some new ideas.

Mr. Tsongas, who likes to stress his devotion to the issues and his abhorrence of attack advertising, is running commercials that essentially call Mr. Clinton a liar without offering any evidence.

And former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. of California, who promises to save politics from the evils of moneyed contributors and lobbyists, is now suiting up in the uniform of one of Washington's more powerful special-interest groups. Fashionable Jackets

Mr. Brown's fashion statement, on display at factory gates and in front of microphones, consists of his trademark white turtleneck under a shiny blue warmup jacket with the logo of the United Automobile Workers. He does not seem to have taken off the jacket since he unveiled it to prime-time television audiences on Tuesday night in interviews that he conducted with network anchors from the U.A.W. union hall in Romulus, Mich.

"These people have been ripped off," Mr. Brown repeated in the interviews as he stressed his opposition to a free-trade pact with Mexico. "Jobs are being exported to Mexico and everywhere else, and these people feel it. They're angry and they know that neither Bush nor even the leadership of their own party care about what's happening in their families and their neighborhoods."

Mr. Brown looked pleased when David Brinkley of ABC News quoted the candidate's promise to "challenge the corrupt political system dominated by the Washington elites." But Mr. Brown did not seem to include the auto workers' union among these elites, even though it is a well-established presence in Washington and has its share of critics.

"If Jerry Brown wants to talk about who's ripping off working people, the U.A.W. would be a good place to start," said James Bovard, the author of a book on protectionism, "The Fair Trade Fraud" (1991, St. Martin's Press ). He faults the union for supporting restrictions and tariffs on imports of foreign cars. 'It's Highway Robbery'

"Brown is pandering to a union that gives hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to Congressmen to keep restrictions on imports," Mr. Bovard said. "Those restrictions added $1,600 to the cost of the average new car during the mid-1980's. It's highway robbery to make an American car buyer, who on the average makes a lot less money than than an auto worker, pay an extra $1,600 to bankroll the auto workers' high salaries."

Mr. Tsongas also tried the warmup-jacket look, wearing one during a visit to a predominantly black high school here, but the visual highlight of his campaign so far has turned out to be less flattering. As his plane was taxiing at Chicago's Midway Airport on Wednesday, preparing to take him to Michigan, a wheel got stuck in the mud next to the runway -- and, unluckily for Mr. Tsongas, not far from television cameras.

Cheap symbols and visual puns are always tempting to journalists in need of something new to say on the campaign trail, and this one was irresistible because of its timing right after Mr. Tsongas's poor showing on Super Tuesday. What better way to show his "stalled campaign"?

The wheel stuck in the mud starred on the local evening newscasts. Even after the plane finally took off, WMAQ-TV featured a live report from the airport that gave the pun one further twist -- "Now the candidate's only other job is to avoid the political mud likely to be slung at him along the campaign."

Today Mr. Tsongas flung a little mud himself in an advertisement broadcast by television stations in Michigan and Illinois. It features drum rolls and rising music accompanying shots of Mr. Tsongas as an announcer says, in the voice of a hard-bitten detective: "This is Paul Tsongas. He's not pretty. He's not very polished."

Mr. Tsongas lacks politicians' endorsements, the announcer continues, "because he doesn't just make promises, he tells the truth." He has "ideas and the guts to make 'em stick." Then the music stops abruptly, and the announcer recites the words scrolling across the screen: "He's no Bill Clinton. That's for sure. He's the exact opposite."

For anyone who missed the first reference to truth, the ad ends: "Paul Tsongas. He's not afraid of the truth." Other Contradictions

One of Mr. Tsongas's aides describes the commercial as "going negative in a positive way." There may be some other contradictions -- if Mr. Tsongas is not an opportunistic politician, why is he smearing his opponent without offering any proof or chance for refutation? -- but it seems to be one of the campaign's more effective commercials.

Mr. Clinton was on the news this evening inspecting cheesecake at a factory and denouncing Mr. Tsongas's commercial. He promised to stick to the issues, which are the basis for his new commercial in Illinois attacking Mr. Tsongas. It shows a copy of Mr. Tsongas' booklet, "A Call to Economic Arms," next to a small photograph of the former Senator that looks awful enough to have come from his driver's license.

Pages flip as the announcer cites specifics, and the ad ends with the booklet shutting. "Isn't it time we closed the book on the 1980's?" the announcer says. "Paul Tsongas. More of the same."

It, too, is an effective advertisement, and it contains some truth: One of Mr. Tsongas's proposals, cutting the capital gains tax, is reminiscent of the 1980's.

But other ideas singled out in the ad, including the possibility of reducing future cost-of-living increases in benefits to wealthy Social Security recipients, are in fact popular among many of the reform Democrats that Mr. Clinton likes to associate himself with. Many neo-liberals have argued, for instance, that poor young workers in Detroit should not be subsidizing retirees in Palm Beach. Back Home in Chicago

But this is not really a week for new ideas, at least not new ideas that can be easily attacked with conventional techniques like 30-second commercials. And Mr. Clinton looks very comfortable falling back on the old politics.

The Arkansan appears regularly on the screen offering uncontroversial proposals like "putting people first" and "people-based economics." He does not explain what non-people-based economics would be, but he has the proper triumphant look of the front-runner.

So does his wife, Hillary, who took Mr. Clinton back to her old high school and demonstrated exactly how malleable campaigners can be.

Viewers who watched Mrs. Clinton's appearance on the CBS News program "60 Minutes" a few weeks ago detected a Southern twang as she talked about her marriage and Tammy Wynette, but there was no trace of it this week when she went back to her high school in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge. In fact, for some reason it sounded as if her Chicago accent was coming back.

Photo: In this year's political campaigns, as in most, image is terribly important, and in courting the labor vote special efforts are being made in Michigan. Edmund G. Brown Jr., former California governor, donned his standard garb of warmup jacket, white turtleneck and plaid shirt in a visit to office of the Wayne County Commission chairman, Arthur B. Blackwell, left, whose endorsement Mr. Brown sought. (Peter Yates for The New York Times)